A real crowd pleaser

COEUR d'ALENE - The crowd at the Yellow Pine Harmonica Contest and Festival was blown away last weekend by a 10-year-old boy from Coeur d'Alene.

Mickey Howard, a Sorensen Magnet School student, went home with two cash prizes from the annual summer event held high in the mountains, in the backwoods of Central Idaho.

One of his $100 awards was for winning the junior division, but that was easy.

"I was actually the only kid there that really played harmonica," Mickey said.

Sure, there were other youngsters toting harps among the 2,000 people attracted by the three-day festival to the tiny, remote town of Yellow Pine. But they couldn't blow out a tune like Mickey.

Mickey did more than huff and puff on his harmonica to wow the audience.

He played Celtic songs while balancing himself atop a large ball. As he moved his feet to remain standing on the rolling globe, Mickey belted out notes and juggled - first balls, then clubs.

The boy did it all without missing a beat.

He's most proud of his first place win in a "crowd pleaser" contest in which he competed against adults performing various types of entertainment acts.

Mickey started playing harmonica about a year ago. "I was doing fiddle, but I wouldn't practice," Mickey said.

Then he saw a harmonica player, and asked his mom for one of the tiny instruments.

"She said, 'Yes,' because they're way less expensive than the fiddle," Mickey said. "And you can carry it around in your pocket."

His repertoire includes Beatles and Bob Dylan songs, but it was a trio of Celtic tunes that pleased the crowd in Yellow Pine. They don't teach harmonica at his school, but Mickey took a few harmonica lessons from one of his teachers at Sorensen, a magnet school focused on the arts and humanities.

Mickey learned three songs from his Sorensen teacher: "Fraher's Jig," "Mickey Callaghan's Slide" and "Winnie Hayes' Jig."

"I decided to put the three together," he said.

Before heading to the festival, Mickey spent two weeks practicing. He would play for a half-hour and then rest for a half-hour.

"I probably wouldn't know how to juggle if I didn't go to Sorensen," Mickey said.

He wasn't nervous about performing at the festival because he "doesn't get stage fright that easy."

Mickey's mom, Sharalee Howard, said Sorensen students are given many opportunities to perform in front of audiences. The children learn very early, she said, that if they misstep while performing, they should just carry on.

The harmonica contest, in its 22nd year, is touted as a "festival to honor pocket harps and prospecting pioneers."

It attracts people from all over the United States, and usually a few from other countries.

Mickey's family learned about the festival from a relative who lives in Boise, about 140 miles south of Yellow Pine.

"I thought it was a nice little town," Mickey said. "It's really small."

Yellow Pine boasts a population of 35.

It's the kind of place where they honor the pioneer dead whose bodies rest there under the pines, where the directions to get there include the phrase "all routes involve travel on dirt roads," and one of those unpaved routes includes a 50-mile stretch along Lick Creek Road.

The event serves as a fundraiser to pay for improvements in the small town - upgrades to the community hall, dust abatement on the streets and support for the volunteer fire department.

Mickey's family traveled to the festival in their motor home. When they had to turn the rig around in a driveway, the family was treated to some Yellow Pine hospitality.

"This old guy came out and said we could camp in his yard," Mickey said.

He plans to go back next year.